Calling a cellphone a mere phone seems a little silly these days. The little pocket wonders now do so much they are really handheld computers. With extras. The process of mashing one or more gadgets together in the same box used to be called convergence, but that approach quietly died as the mobile phone ate up any and every rival device. So successful has this been that whole product categories have had the life choked out of their twitching bodies by the phone... (Wired)
I agree with all the items on their list except for MP3 players like the iPod. I suppose one day they will become obsolete but when the max storage available on the iPhone is a measly 16G I don't see this happening anytime soon. They'll have to vastly increase the storage capacity before it becomes attractive to more customers. Nope, I'm still sold on my 80G iPod. As for landline phones, sheesh I can't even remember the last time I had one. 7 years ago? I honestly forget.
3 comments:
I wouldn't include the PDA on this list. True, the latest phones such as the iPhone and LG Vu have the same functionality, this was not the case a few years ago.
I am a veteran of the long dead ComDex computer show. I remember seeing the Nokia 9210,, which was probably the first phone that could compete with a PDA. The phone was built for the European market, were very expensive, and most U.S carriers didn't use digital broadcast. Battery life sucked and the interface was slow. Needless to say, they sold very few in the U.S.
By 2002, the popularity of the PDA was starting to decline. Laptop computers were gaining more acceptance at home and in the workplace. Yes, they were more expensive. But they were much more functional than the PDA. Between 2002 and 2005 the market form the PDA hard pretty much evaporated. With the launch of the iPhone and it's clones within the last couple of years that your can truly say that the cell phone has replaced, but not killed, the PDA. It was already dead.
Good point. I never had a PDA myself. I do love my Treo though. I'd switch to an all-in-one like the iPhone if they could work out the glitches, poor battery and low storage capacity. Until that happens I'm not interested.
Btw, nice pic of you playing guitar in your profile!
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